2020 DANCE BIENNALE POSTPONED

Pending fresh Government guidelines based on the deconfinement plan, the Dance Biennale team has decided, in conjunction with all the public partners that support the event – Lyon Métropole, the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (DRAC), the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regional Council, and the participating municipalities – to postpone until 2021 the next edition of the Dance Biennale, which was initially scheduled from 11 September to 2 October this year.

Delaying until a very late hour the decision on whether to proceed with or postpone the Dance Biennale – a major event devoted wholly to new work by choreographers worldwide – risked putting the featured artists in acute difficulty and jeopardising the event’s economics over the long term.

Such a prospect has prompted all the event’s organisers and funders to take this decision, given the economic risks faced by La Biennale de Lyon, the non-profit body that runs the event, and with the aim of avoiding the cancellation of this Dance Biennale edition.

The economic risks stem from many uncertainties (regarding venues’ seating capacity and reopening arrangements) that will likely not be dispelled by 2 June, at the earliest.

In addition it is clear that, in the current public-health context, most of the French and foreign artists cannot rehearse properly (even though some municipal partners have provided facilities) or even hope to travel between countries.

La Biennale de Lyon thus proposes to postpone the event until May-June 2021, alongside the Défilé, which had already been postponed to this period. Talks are continuing between Lyon Métropole, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regional Council and the DRAC, with the aim of still staging a 19th Dance Biennale that is demanding yet inclusive, and open to all.